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If you've racked up a sleep debt or just want a deliciously late morning, the answer is a long, deep sleep. If you disrupt your sleep with the wrong evening activities or bedroom setup, you'll wake up less refreshed, and have a hard time falling back asleep for that extra hour of comfort.

Steps

Part 1

Encouraging Deep Sleep

1

Block morning sunlight. It's much easier to sleep in a dark room. Close your blinds or curtains, and keep your door shut to block light from the rest of the house. You'll be sleeping during brighter hours than usual, so do what you can to make up for it.

If your curtains are thin, try slinging a blanket over your curtain rod.

2

Track your sleep cycles. Ever go from tired to wide awake in ten minutes? This happens when your body moves to the next part of it sleep cycle. Typically, the cycle lasts about three hours. If you track the times you feel most tired, you can go to bed at that time to get better sleep. Set an alarm for a time when you usually feel awake, and there's a better chance that you'll avoid morning grogginess.

3

Adjust the temperature and bedding. Most people sleep best in a cool room, kept at roughly 65ºF (18ºC).[1] Adjust the thermostat and bedclothes until you are comfortable. You should be warm enough to fall asleep comfortably, but not so warm that you sweat or kick off the blankets in the night.

Try warmer or cooler pajamas, sleeping without pajamas, or using a hot water bottle.

If you usually shower right before bed, try showering an hour in advance instead. This gives you time to cool down.

4

Play white noise or relaxing music. Noise can make it difficult to fall asleep, or lead to a restless night. Mask it by running a fan, or a radio set to static. Some people enjoy falling asleep to relaxing music.[2]

5

Consider staying up late. This will make you tired in the morning, but it's a risky strategy. If you have trouble sleeping in, there's the chance you'll get up anyway and end up with a nasty sleep debt.

6

Spend time outdoors during daylight hours. Exposure to daylight earlier in the day can help keep your body synchronized with the day-night cycle.[3] Outdoor exercise may be particularly effective, so you don't go to bed full of excess energy.

While some people can exercise right before bed, many people find it difficult to sleep until they've cooled down.

7

Treat sleeping pills with caution. Sleeping pills will knock you out, but overuse can lead to addiction or an inability to sleep without them. Many sleeping medications lead to serious side effects or allergic reactions in some users.[4] Use these only for short-term problems. If you have serious trouble sleeping, visit a doctor and ask about more effective medication.

Melatonin is a safer option, but not as powerful. It's usually most effective at fixing jet lag or another disrupted sleep schedule. It may not be your best bet for a one-time sleep-in.

Most over the counter sleeping medications are antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine or doxylamine, sometimes combined with painkillers or alcohol. Side effects such as next-day drowsiness or dizziness are common, and it's unclear whether these are even effective.[5]

Prescription-strength drugs are usually benzodiazepines. These can lead to severe addiction and withdrawal symptoms, and will only work while you are taking them.[6]

Most other prescription-strength drugs have not been around long enough to gather complete data on effectiveness or side effects. Talk to your doctor about zaleplon (Sonata), zolpidem (Ambien), and eszopiclone (Lunesta) and ask for recent information.[7]

Part 2

Getting Back to Sleep in the Morning

1

Lie still in bed. If you wake up before you'd like, resist the urge to get up. Don't move at all, not even to open your eyes or scratch your nose. If you let the initial discomfort pass, you can usually drift back to sleep.

2

Take deep breaths. While lying still, take deep breaths through your nose. Try the 4-7-8 pattern to relax yourself:

Count to four slowly as you inhale through your nose.

Hold as you count to seven.

Exhale as you count to eight, through your mouth.

Repeat until you fall asleep.

3

Imagine yourself sleeping. Silently tell yourself that you'll fall back into restful slumber. If you are thinking about what you have to do, or worrying about your inability to sleep in, you'll be less relaxed and more likely to fail.

4

Take a short break. If you've waited patiently but still can't fall back asleep, sit up and do something to relax. This is especially useful if you are feeling anxious about your inability to sleep. Read a relaxing book, listen to quiet music, or stand up and stretch. Return to bed within fifteen minutes.

5

Avoid sleep paralysis. Some people suffer from temporary paralysis when they wake up, aware of their surroundings but unable to move. This is harmless, but often accompanied by terror or even hallucinations. Following the advice above for restful sleep reduces the odds of this happening. If you still have these experiences, take additional precautions:

Sleep on your side, not your back. If you wake up on your back anyway, try sewing a sock on the back of your pajamas and filling it with a tennis ball.

During a paralysis episode, try to move your fingers, toes, and tongue. Some people can even have an "out of body" experience by imagining themselves standing up.

Whenever you have a nightmare or sleep paralysis episode, document it in a journal. This can give you the psychological distance you need to overcome your fear.

Part 3

Avoiding Sleep Disruption

1

Stay away from digital screens before bedtime. Blue light tricks your brain into thinking it's the afternoon, and screens are full of blue light. Avoid computers, television, and cell phones for at least an hour before you plan to fall asleep. This will lead to deeper, more restful sleep.

As an alternative, try an turning on Night Shift (iOS), Night Light (Windows 10), or use an app like F.lux as they reduce the blue light emitted from your device's screen.

2

Minimize alcohol, cigarettes, and caffeine. Many people take alcohol to help them fall asleep, without realizing that it leads to restless sleep. Similarly, the relaxing effect of cigarettes doesn't outweigh the buzz of nicotine. Avoid both of these substances in the late evening, or you may find yourself awake before your alarm. Finally, as you probably know, caffeine from coffee, soda, or chocolate can make it much more difficult to sleep.

Some people are extra-sensitive to caffeine, and may have trouble sleeping if they drink coffee or tea in the afternoon. Try skipping everything but your morning dose for a few days. Your sleep may improve.

3

Avoid heavy meals before bed. Eating large portions of rich foods can lead to restless sleep. Eat dinner at least two hours before you go to bed. If you get hungry in the late evening, eat a light snack and drink a glass of water or milk.

4

Reduce the amount of water you drink. If you have to get up in the morning to pee, you'll have a harder time sleeping in. Drink no more than a small glass of water to stay hydrated.

You may be lacking enough exercise during the day or it could also be too much exposure to blue light found in tech devices such as TV, iPad, Phones, iPods etc. Don't use any devices an hour before bed time and see if that helps.

Don't keep the brightness on the device any higher than necessary and use an app like f.lux or Night Shift, or an Android equivalent. These filter out a lot of the blue light, which is the most disruptive to sleep.

Whenever I try to lie in, I get a bad headache, I feel really groggy for most of the rest of the day, and I never really feel like I wake up properly.

Community Answer

If you feel better when you don't sleep in, then don't sleep in. Listen to your body and don't force yourself to sleep longer than you naturally would. You're probably getting enough sleep already. Sleeping too much can make you feel as bad as sleeping too little.

If you want to sleep in, make sure you close your blinds and shut your door to keep out as much light as possible. You should also try to keep your room at 65°F since most people sleep better in a cool room. To make sure outside noises don’t keep you up, try playing static on a radio or running a fan to mask unwanted noises. If that still isn’t enough, you can try staying up later that usual so you’ll be tired in the morning, but you could just end up more tired than before. For tips on avoiding sleep disruptions, scroll down . . .

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Article Info

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 18 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. Together, they cited 7 references. This article has also been viewed 19,647 times.